The potential of AI to study your target audience without using cookies: Analysis of the vegan world.

In today’s society, awareness and sensitivity towards social issues have increased significantly, giving rise to various movements that voice the demands of citizens. Among these, the vegan activist movement stands out for its focus on animal welfare and the environment in general, manifested through the adoption of plant-based diets that ensure a cruelty-free lifestyle and aim to reduce the environmental impact of intensive farming.

Social media has proven to be a valuable resource for delving into the world of veganism, allowing exploration of its nuances and providing useful information for the creation of effective advertising campaigns that promote vegan values and interests. In this article, we will present a comprehensive analysis of Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter users who have shared or interacted with content related to veganism, vegan lifestyles, and plant-based diets. Through the use of Odience, an audience targeting platform developed by KPI6, marketers, analysts, and strategists will be able to identify their target audience and activate them on various media platforms.

Vegan diets and values are mainly discussed by young women (55%). Specifically, 51% of the audience belongs to Gen Z, and 44% to the Millennial generation, indicating that older generations are less sensitive to the topic. These users are mainly individuals with artistic inclinations (7%), involved in the world of cooking (4%), nurses (4%), followed by those working in photography (4%) and the medical field (3%).

The artificial intelligence algorithms implemented within Odience allow the study of users’ historical feed of published content and the content they have interacted with on various platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, while always respecting user privacy through a complete anonymization process. Through these algorithms, it has been possible to identify different categories of interest related to the vegan target, thus offering marketers valuable engagement opportunities by structuring targeted communication campaigns.

#1 Food and Beverages (13.7%)

At the top of the users’ interests is the world of food, highlighting the centrality of the culinary experience in the vegan lifestyle. By delving into the food category, it was possible to gain a detailed insight into second-level interests, including:

Cooking and healthy eating (34%)

Alcohol-free beverages (31%)

Vegan diets (20%)

Cooking (15%)

Overall, this data provides important insights into the choice of communicating through vegan values: it’s not only people who embrace a cruelty-free lifestyle who are interested; many are drawn to vegan values with the idea of exploring new approaches to cooking and healthier ways of eating.

#2 Healthy Lifestyle (13.6%)

The focus on a healthy lifestyle is indeed central to the vegan target audience, along with food. This data confirms the importance of themes related to well-being, self-care, and personal growth and improvement, manifested through the adoption of sustainable and healthy lifestyles, encouraging ethical and responsible choices, both in terms of diet and purchasing habits.

Gen Z is discovering day by day  the environmental and ethical impacts of their daily choices. They seek consumption options that align with their values, both in terms of personal health and global responsibility. By combining a healthy lifestyle with a plant-based diet, the young people of this generation can adopt a way of life that promotes physical and mental well-being, reducing polluting emissions, and avoiding animal exploitation.

#3 Shopping (10%)

Taking the third place among the interests of this audience, we find the shopping category, highlighting the importance for companies to study the vegan target audience as potential consumers. Studying the purchasing habits reveals the theme of conscious consumerism and the search for ethically made products.

Using this insight, marketers can promote brands that offer vegan and cruelty-free products, emphasizing transparency in the supply chain and sharing the ethical stories behind product creation. By showcasing the commitment of their brand to responsible shopping practices, a strong connection can be established with the vegan audience, inspiring them to choose their brand over the competition.

Shopping Habits: Online vs. Offline

Analyzing the purchasing habits of the vegan population reveals a particular focus on the clothing and accessories sector. Among the most frequented physical stores, clothing stores take the lead, surpassing even essential products stores such as pharmacies. Similarly, among the most purchased online product categories, we find, in order: clothing, shoes, and accessories, which represent more than half of the analyzed vegan sample.

Digging deeper into the topic of online shopping, we see that it’s possible to highlight other product categories that vegans tend to search for online: not only beauty products but also food items, small electronics and books.

Analysis of Social Media Preferences: Opportunities and Insights

The vegan audience is primarily active on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and WeChat. Among the key communication touchpoints to engage this audience, it’s certainly possible to include the creation of communities on Facebook, the presentation of visually appealing content on Instagram, the creation of short videos on TikTok, and the targeting of specific regional markets on WeChat. By understanding and adapting to audience preferences, brands can establish a strong online presence and enhance growth through targeted advertising and content strategies.

Activation of Analyzed Insights and Conclusions

Understanding the preferences and discussion topics of the vegan audience can significantly enhance advertising strategies and optimize persona targeting. Marketers and advertisers can leverage this information to create personalized campaigns across various advertising channels, such as walled gardens, DSPs (Demand Side Platforms), and contextual targeting.

Within walled gardens, utilizing information about the preferences and discussion topics on social media of the vegan audience enables the development of targeted advertising campaigns that reach the right audience segments within these platforms.

With programmatic advertising, marketers can leverage audience data to target vegan individuals across multiple websites and ad exchanges. By integrating information about preferred social platforms, discussion topics, and demographic information, marketers can create specific targeting criteria that ensure their ads are seen by the most relevant users.

The approach to contextual advertising involves placing ads within content that is relevant to the interests of the vegan audience. By understanding key discussion topics, marketers can identify suitable placements for their ads. For example, placing ads within articles about veganism, animal welfare, or healthy cooking can increase the likelihood of reaching a receptive audience. By leveraging information about the preferences and interests of the vegan audience, advertisers can develop tailored campaigns that effectively reach and engage their target individuals across various channels, ultimately achieving better results and ROI while focusing on creatively engaging these users through AI-powered means.